Meanings
- uncountableA lack of relish: distaste
Men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme disrelish to be told of their duty.
1791, Edmund Burke, Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs5 more examples
Bread or tobacco may be neglected where they are shown to be useful to health, because of an indifferency or disrelish to them; reason and consideration at first recommends, and begins their trial, and use finds, or custom makes them pleasant.
1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, volume IThe only reason he did not rise in the Church, we are told, was the envy of others, and a disrelish entertained of him
1728, [Alexander Pope], “Book the First”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC, page 3The residents live principally upon this most delicious fish which fortunately can be eaten a long time without disrelish.
1818, John Franklin, The Journey to the Polar Sea[…] that those eyes may glow With wooing light upon me, ere the Morn Peers with disrelish, grey, barren, and cold.
1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, act IV, scene II, verses 40-42"I have no other malice against the race, Signore, than the wholesome disrelish of a Christian.
1872, J. Fenimore Cooper, The Bravo - uncountableAbsence of relishing or palatable quality; bad taste; nauseousness.
1 more example
[T]hey fonldy thinking to allay / Thir appetite with guſt, inſtead of Fruit / Chewd bitter Aſhes, which th'offended taſte / With ſpattering noiſe rejected: oft they aſſayd, / Hunger and thrift conſtraining, drugd as oft, / With hatefulleſt diſreliſh writh'd thir jaws / With ſoot and cinders fill'd [...]
1674, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], 2nd edition, London: […] S[amuel] Simmons […], →OCLC, page 268
present singular third person disrelishes · participle present disrelishing · participle past disrelished · past disrelished
- transitiveTo have no taste for; to reject as distasteful.
September 1, 1733, Alexander Pope, letter to Jonathan Swift Everybody is so concerned for the public, that all private enjoyments are lost or disrelished
- transitiveTo deprive of relish; to make nauseous or disgusting in a slight degree.
And Eve within, due at her hour prepar'd / For dinner favourie fruits, of taſte to pleaſe / True appetite, and not diſreliſh thirſt
1674, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], 2nd edition, London: […] S[amuel] Simmons […], →OCLC, page 126
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Cite this entry
disrelish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/disrelish
“disrelish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/disrelish. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “disrelish,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/disrelish.
Source: disrelish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.